Six on Saturday – 03/07/2020 -Feeding the Belly and the Eyes

Temperatures hovering around 30 (high 80’s), high humidity, loads of sunshine with the occasional thunderstorm replenishing the rain barrels…it must be July! It was Canada Day on Wednesday and thanks to less than 200 new covid cases a day in Ontario we’ve been able to loosen our social gathering restrictions – eight friends joined us for cake and lemonade in the back yard. One unusual gardening gift brought by a neighbour will hopefully foil the fat rabbits who have developed a taste for artichokes:

These Imperial Star globe artichokes should be much bigger by now, with a lot more leaves. Rabbits (I’m assuming it’s rabbits…) have chomped through most of the leaf stems. Tara brought a length of chicken wire to the party on Wednesday – I’m hoping this will mean I’ll see (and eat) a few artichokes later this summer.

Snap peas are fattening daily – although shelling is a bit of a chore it’s worth it. This bowl gave us more than a cup of shelled peas – perfect for dinner last night! (Would have been more but I snacked my way through picking and shelling! The pods on this variety are just as delicious as the peas.)

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On the left, this is what the heirloom tomato ‘Costoluto Genovese’ looks like. On the right, a tomato grown from the same seed packet, definitely not the same variety! I’m not complaining though since it has produced the first tomato of the year! A lovely salad size.

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Hollyhocks (Alcea) started to bloom last Saturday and now they’re all over in a wide colour palette. I’m going to do some serious culling later this summer though – the dreaded rust fungus (also known as Puccinia malvacearum) has badly infected all of these stately, gorgeous flowers close to the house.

This is Creeping bellflower – Campanula rapunculoides – a very pretty common non-native flower here that can, within a few years, totally take over a garden bed both by seed and root runner. It’s almost impossible to get rid of without using strong chemicals – I spend a few hours most months pulling flower stalks and the larger leaves.

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Finally, what would summer be without roses. These two floribunda – Iceberg and Cinderella – each with loads of buds – are the most successful in my garden this year.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and the week to come. Happy Fourth of July to our American neighbours – please party safely this year! To see more Sixes from around the world, please visit The Propagator .